Climate change is gradually affecting regional and global food production. Warming temperatures
and intensity of extreme weather events may lead to significant reductions in crop yields. The LIFE
AgroClimaWater project provides adaptation management strategies to increase water productivity
in fruit orchards, reducing pollution and resource use. The increase of water use efficiency was
achieved through a sustainable irrigation strategy based on the integration of the daily soil water
balance with soil moisture measurements (from 0 to 90 cm depth). The monitoring of the soil
profile contributes to optimize irrigation volumes, avoiding nutrient loss and percolation in the deep
layers.
The experimental sites of fruit orchards have been divided into two plots: one managed with
sustainable practices (no-tillage, supply of organic fertilisers, mulching of pruning residues, cover
crops and guided irrigation, controlled water stress) and another one conventionally managed
(weeding, distribution of mineral fertilizers, empirical irrigation). Effectiveness of good agricultural
practices (GAPs) applied in sustainable plots was assessed by performance indicators as Water Use
Efficiency (WUE), Water Footprint (WF), Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE) that were compared to
conventionally managed plots.
Results revealed that the sustainable irrigation strategy leads to a more than 30.0% decrease in the
WF, a more than 20.0% increase in the WUE and a nitrogen use efficiency (NUEN) greater than 1.5
times in the sustainable orchards compared to that conventional ones. Moreover, the sustainable
management has a beneficial effect on natural resources (soil and water) conservation and
restoration, implementing the water productivity of the agro-ecosystem and highlighting the
mitigation role of agro-ecosystems